Natives of Ireland were utterly dismayed at his tasteless joke about sex and the Queen on Monday. His crude gag, aimed at ingratiating himself with an expectant audience at the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly "went down like a lead balloon", according to chairman, Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh.

Although Joe hails from the strongly nationalist Donegal, he insists that O'Leary's clanger totally misread the state of "UK-Irish relations since the Queen's visit".

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